The arrangements were for David to travel down to the beach with Gladys Meznar, a
missionary whose daughter owned the apartment where David would be spending the week. She
was going to clean the apartment as no one had been in it during the winter.
On the way down to Guaruja, Gladys asked David if he minded if they stopped at an
orphanage because she needed to give the caretaker, Dona Naomie, something. David tells
the story of what happened next.
On the way down, she asked me if I would be willing to stop by and see an orphanage. I
said, "No problem" seeing that I had the week. After getting off the bus in
Santos, we walked a block and arrived at the little house.
Gladys clapped at the door and very soon little faces appeared from all over. Soon the
lady who ran the orphanage showed up at the door. It was Dona Naomie. She was in her late
fifties and had a very pleasant and uplifting personality.
She invited us in, and it was not long before I was given the tour of the orphanage. In
the first room were five baby cribs, with five infants in them. They were being cared for
by one of the older girls. The house was way too small to hold this woman and over 40
children! However, after seeing these things, my heart was not moved.
Later, while eating lunch, water and a small loaf of hard bread, Dona Naomie wanted to
tell the story of the orphanage.
One Christmas Eve, a crippled girl had been left in a basket on her doorstep with a
note asking if she would take her in. She did and felt that this was a calling in her
life. Her husband had left her and she was raising several children by herself already;
however, she would take in any child who needed a home in that community, until she now
had over 40 children.
Gladys wanted to tell me what had just taken place that morning, for I didn't
understand what had been happening because all the conversation had been taking place in
Portuguese. Dona Naomie said that last week she had no food for the children. She had gone
into the market and was able to borrow about $30 worth of food from some of the merchants
who knew her and trusted her.
The night before our arrival, she had become very concerned because she had not
received the means with which to repay her debt. She knew that if she wasn't able to repay
the debt soon and found herself in the same situation again, they would not loan her any
food. She said she prayed late into the night and was troubled because the Lord had not
provided.
However, she had awakened that morning knowing that the Lord had answered her prayer.
In fact, she had gone through the day rejoicing and thanking Him for this answer. Then
Gladys and I arrived, and unknown to me, she was carrying an offering she had collected
the day before in her Sunday school class for the orphanage.
Dona Naomie said, "See, He indeed answered my prayer! Not only that, but the Lord
is so good! He gave me more than I had asked for!" Even after hearing the story of
this woman’s faith, my heart was not moved.
A little while later, we were ready to leave. However, Dona Naomie would not allow me
to leave until she had the children sing and pray for me. She had me stand in front of the
children and she lined them up with the shortest in front and the tallest in back. She
would start a song, and the children would join in.
After they had sung several songs, she had them bow their heads and started calling
each one by name to say a prayer. As I was standing there, it suddenly dawned on me that
this woman was giving the best gift she had to give. Here I was, a complete stranger, and
yet she was offering up her most prized possessions…the songs and prayers of her
children.
In a somewhat normal reaction when given such a gift, I asked myself the question,
"Well, what can I do in return?" No sooner had that question arrived in my mind
than I heard the answer. It was a voice which came deep from within me, and it said,
"You can be a father to these children."
When I heard it, I immediately recognized that it had not come from my own heart or
mind. Likewise, I realized that it was an answer that I would not have arrived at.
However, it was one of the most pressing needs that these children had…a male role
model. Standing there, I immediately started protesting against this suggestion, for I
knew Who had spoken.
At first I tried to tell myself that I had not even heard it. Then, when I could not
deny it, I began to argue with the Lord. "How can I do this? I don’t know these
people; I don’t speak their language. I don’t have a place to stay. I don’t
have a job. I mean, what are they going to say, ‘Right, you were asked to stay for
the children’s sake.’ This can’t be right because it makes no sense. I
mean, I only have six months left in school. What of my degree? What of all the things I
have planned for my life? What are my family and brother going to think?" I could
find no answers to these questions.
By now, all the children had said a prayer, and Dona Naomie was ending. I very quickly
raised my last hope of protest, "Lord, this is too much, too soon, too fast,…you
will just have to wait."
I told no one of the experience but thought about it the rest of the week. I returned
to the United States and continued my education, but there was no peace with the answer I
had given the Lord.
After several months of protesting, one night I realized that in telling Him to wait, I
had told Him, "NO!" That "NO" meant that I was not willing to do what
He asked of me. That "NO" meant that I was the biggest hypocrite because I was
unwilling to act on what I said I believed in my heart and mind to be true. I had not left
all else to follow Him, but I was still hanging on to my life, trying to save it the best
way I knew how. At this point, I repented of this sin and simply told the Lord that
whatever He asked, I would try and do.
By now, I had already agreed to go to the University of Tennessee to work on a
Master’s degree in exercise physiology. I accepted an assistantship offer and
proceeded on with my education.
In the summer of 1985, I started making bike trips from Tennessee to Florida to raise
money for the orphanage. Over the next several years, I did many of these bike trips.
Having received the degree, I found a job in Oak Ridge and continued to live there.
In late 1988 and early 1989, I began hearing and reading about the growing street
children problem in Brazil and began searching for the Lord’s leading. In December of
1990, while visiting my parents, home on furlough in Fort Worth, Texas, I attended Mission
90, a national conference for students being held in Fort Worth. My youngest brother had
convinced me to join him in attending, although I was no longer a student.
During that week, I came to realize the Lord was not finished with His calling in my
life. The confirmation came with the realization that all the speakers had failed to
mention the fastest growing un-evangelized population in the world, street children. Not
only that, all of the mission strategies presented had left out the fact that the
population of the world is getting younger every day.
On the last day of this conference, I asked the Lord if He was leading me to return to
Brazil. I prayed that if it was His will, He would make a way for it to happen.
Well, not long after the meeting, I learned that American Airlines was opening their
routes into South America. My sister had just been employed by them, and I learned that I
could get a pass for a round trip ticket at a greatly reduced cost. Upon hearing this
news, I received a letter from Gladys inviting me down for a visit.
I then decided I would request a month off from work without pay. Well, they approved
it, and I decided to take the month of February off without pay. Although I had been told
I wouldn't be able to fly stand-by during that time of the year, I boarded the plane with
it only half full. The United States had invaded Iraq, and many people were afraid to fly.
I only had a couple things on my agenda: find out if the situation with homeless
children was as bad as everyone said it was, and see who was doing anything about it. I
remember as the plane set down in Sao Paulo, thinking how stupid all this was.
Looking out over the huge city, I suddenly felt as if the task was impossible. No
matter how hard I tried, there was no way that one person could make a difference. Once
again, I started struggling with the call the Lord had placed on me. As the plane touched
down, His spirit revealed to me that this was the condition in which I must be in order
for Him to use me. If I was going to depend upon my own strength, I would never make a
difference.
I was then reminded of I Corinthians 12 where Paul says, "I will all the more
gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of
Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong."
After a month of visiting six of the largest cities in Brazil and seeing some amazing
sights, I flew back to the U.S. with the answers to my two questions. Yes, the problem of
abandoned children was as bad as it had been reported, and no, no one was doing very much
about it. I returned with no real direction in which to go.
Two weeks after my return, I was confronted by the architect at work as to where I had
been. John Overly had been working with me in designing a new fitness center. I did not
know him that well; however, he wanted to know where I had been for so long. I tried to
put him off, but eventually told him where and why I had gone. His response was,
"Well, you have to meet my cousin’s mother-in-law." Well, I wasn't too
thrilled about the idea, but he insisted.
This continued for several weeks until one day he called me up and said that his
cousin’s mother-in-law was coming to town and he had arranged for us to have lunch
together. Her name was Sue Morton, and she was coming to Maryville the following week to
try to get her mother-in-law situated with nursing care. She was the founder of an
organization called Refugees International, and this was the reason why John had wanted me
to meet her.
As we ate lunch in a shopping center cafeteria, she told me about the founding of this
work. It had started from a Bible study she and her husband were having in their home in
Hong Kong in 1973. The Holy Spirit had moved them to have compassion on the Vietnam
refugees who were perishing on the high seas.
After driving away from this meeting, I realized why the Lord had brought me there. The
next Tuesday evening, I approached those who were attending a Bible study I was teaching
with the idea. They agreed that the Lord was leading us to start a ministry for abandoned
children, and Homeless Children International was born.
Since that evening, the Lord’s hand has guided the ministry by opening doors for
service in five countries. We continue to look forward to how He will use us to make a way
for abandoned children to come home to Him. Pray that His hand will continue to lead and
guide the ministry as we try to follow Him and His leadership.